Sunday, January 18, 2015

Super Bowl 49: Pete Carroll's Revenge?

The Seattle Seahawks had to wait only one year to get back
to the Super Bowl, but Pete Carroll has had to wait 15 years to get back at the
New England Patriots.

Whereas the NFC champions are aiming to repeat as NFL
champions, their head coach – who is driven by competition the way Moses was
driven by commandments -- may privately be looking for some internal measure of
nerds-like revenge. Winning the Super Bowl last year was professional
exoneration. This time it’s personal for Pete.

Following the 1999 season, Carroll was unceremoniously fired
by the Patriots, though he never had a losing season in three years as their
head coach. He was replaced by Bill Belichick and we all know how that worked
out. The Patriots selected Tom Brady 10 weeks later with the 199th
pick in the 2000 NFL player draft and he and Belichick went on to five Super
Bowls, winning three in a four-year span.

The Patriots and Belichick are the last to win back-to-back
Super Bowls. Carroll now has the Seahawks primed to do the same and unseat them
for that honor.Poetic justice?

Understand that Carroll loved being head coach of the
Patriots. So did his parents. When Carroll was named head coach in New England,
he had a giant satellite television dish installed in the backyard of his
boyhood home in Greenbrae, California so his mom and pops could watch all the
Patriots games in their living room rather than get in their car and drive 15
minutes to the nearest sports bar. His mother, Rita, had her recliner
positioned closest to the TV set, watching over Pete on the sidelines long
before Erin Andrews.

When Carroll returned to coach the Patriots for the first
time in the San Francisco Bay Area in an exhibition game against the 49ers in
Candlestick Park he arranged for his dad, Jim, to have a press pass and ride
the elevator to the press box to watch the game rather than have to maneuver up
and down steps in the stands. Jim sat in the back row of the press box wearing
a Patriots cap and jacket and forgot about press box protocol that there is
“absolutely no cheering in the press box.” Jim couldn’t contain his enthusiasm
– now you know where Pete gets his DNA spirit – and cheered loudly whenever his
son’s team had a big play in that preseason game. I had to leave my press box
seat to gently and quietly remind Jim of press box etiquette.

It was annoying to some in the press box, yet it was obvious
to me how proud Pete’s parents were of Pete to be the Patriots head coach.

However, the puppy love the Patriots had for Carroll waned
like lobsters in boiled water. He had the misfortune of succeeding the popular
Bill Parcells, who left the franchise over lack of power with his famous
parting shot, “If I’m going to be asked to cook the meal, I’d like to be able
to pick the groceries.”

Patriots owner Robert Kraft moved quickly to hire Carroll, but player
personal decision-making remained in the hands of Bobby Grier. Carroll loved
Boston and Pats fans, but never lived up to expectations of Parcells-loving
Patriots media who perceived Carroll to be a high-strung, back-slapping
California surfer dude way in over his head and aboutas tough as clam in chowder.

Carroll couldn’t buy their respect – or the groceries. Kraft
relented to family advice and outside pressure and fired Carroll, though he
still calls it the most difficult decision of his career. Kraft and Carroll
remain friends.

It turned out for the best. Carroll learned from his
experience in New England and became a more focused and better prepared coach
for it. We all know how that’s worked out. Carroll climbed to prominence by
coaching USC back to national championships and Seattle to an unexpected first
Super Bowl win.

Unfortunately, Jim and Rita didn’t live long enough to see
that day. They left a year apart shortly after their son was fired as coach of
the Patriots.

So if Pete Carroll has extra motivation to beat the Patriots
in Super Bowl 49 you can understand. The Seahawks should want to beat the
Patriots not only for Pete’s sake but for heaven’s sake.